So it’s blame the woman, or in this case the women time in this election season and the 2012 presidential campaign hasn’t even started yet. Darling of the right and Republican front runner (as much as there is one at this point) ended his presidential run before it begin because his wife and four daughters vetoed it:
But instead of an upbeat notification detailing kick-off plans, close Daniels allies were surprised to wake up Sunday morning to an email from the Indiana governor saying he would forgo a run. The lucky few – like conservative commentator George Will, a Daniels friend – got a personal call the day before.
Daniels’ message by voice and in writing was the same – his wife and their four grown daughters had veto power on a campaign, and they had exercised it. If anyone wondered about the depth of Cheri Daniels’s concerns about the prying eyes of the public, those questions were more than answered in a string of stories and columns focused on her and her husband around the time of her May 12 speech at an Indiana Republican Party dinner.
Earlier reports of their unorthodox relationship – Marriage. Divorce in 1993. Re-married in 1997. With his wife marrying another man in the intervening years and leaving the girls with their father during that – led to many question Cheri Daniels character and her ability as a mother, with many saying she abandoned her daughters. Apparently the scrutiny was too much:
“Now, because of her husband’s prominence in national politics, Cheri Daniels is facing harsh judgments,” wrote “On Parenting” blogger Janice D’Arcy in the Washington Post just last week, adding readers had used the word “abandoned” in the comments section in connection with the split and her kids.
The question, whispered about by Republican elites and fanned by operatives in some rival camps, was gaining such traction that Daniels himself sought to snuff out the whiff of bad parenting in a strong statement to the Indianapolis Star, delivered separately from the one in which he bowed out of the national race.
Those family concerns clearly weighed heavily on the Daniels clan, and ultimately won the day.
“I guess I had always hoped and believed they would find a way, that the governor and his family would find a way to accommodate this run,” close friend Tom Bell told POLITICO. “But I think that was wishful thinking of my part.”
It just shows how in modern day politics any hint of scandal can end a campaign before it begins. And since this is all very public knowledge, there would have been no way to hide this from probing public. Oh well, anther one bites the dust.
Follow Us!